Eberly College of Science

Eberly College of Science

Eight Penn State undergraduate student research teams from five campuses will represent Penn State as the largest Pennsylvania college or university contingent at the Capitol Rotunda Tuesday morning (March 3) in Harrisburg. They will present their research with students from more than 100 Pennsylvania colleges and universities as part of the Undergraduate Research at the Capitol-Pennsylvania event.

Jenny Dobson, a Schreyer Honors Scholar, shaved her head to show solidarity for the cancer patients who have lost their hair through medical treatments. This helped her reflect on the meaning of “internal beauty" for THON 2015.

A free public lecture titled "Using Relativity to Discover Planets" by Jason Wright, assistant professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State, will begin at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, February 21, in 100 Thomas Building on the Penn State University Park campus.

We asked for nominees and you responded. Penn State Today is kicking off its new feature -- "We Are!" -- with shout-outs to four Penn Staters who were nominated by colleagues for going the extra mile. "We Are!" is a way for students, staff and faculty to publicly recognize the people they work with for what they do to make the University a better place.

New research shows that a burst of evolutionary innovation in the genes responsible for electrical communication among nerve cells in our brains occurred over 600 million years ago in a common ancestor of humans and the sea anemone. The research, led by Timothy Jegla, an assistant professor of biology at Penn State, shows that many of these genes, which when mutated in humans can lead to neurological disease, first evolved in the common ancestor of people and a group of animals called cnidarians, which includes jellyfish, coral and sea anemones.

New research shows that a burst of evolutionary innovation in the genes responsible for electrical communication among nerve cells in our brains occurred over 600 million years ago in a common ancestor of humans and the sea anemone.

New research shows that a burst of evolutionary innovation in the genes responsible for electrical communication among nerve cells in our brains occurred over 600 million years ago in a common ancestor of humans and the sea anemone.

Stephanie Brown and Melissa Quinnan, undergraduate students in the Eberly College of Science and Schreyer Honors College, were two of 15 U.S. students selected for a prestigious undergraduate research fellowship this summer at CERN — the European Organization for Nuclear Research.

A free public lecture titled "Capturing the Birth Cries of Black Holes" will begin at 11 a.m. Saturday Feb. 14, in 100 Thomas Building on the Penn State University Park campus. The event is the fourth of six consecutive Saturday lectures in a free public minicourse, the 2015 Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science. The overall theme of the 2015 lecture series is "100 Years After Einstein's Greatest Discovery: New Science from General Relativity." No registration is required.

Penn State senior Christopher Rae has been selected to receive a prestigious Gates Cambridge Scholarship, a highly sought-after program that allows students from around the world to pursue graduate work at the University of Cambridge. Rae, from Lock Haven, Pa., is one of 40 U.S. students chosen from a pool of 755 applicants to receive the scholarship, which places a unique emphasis on social leadership as well as outstanding academic ability.

Obesity and diabetes are not just problems of modern-day humans and their domesticated pets. Insects also are affected by these health conditions, and intestinal infections by protozoans are the cause, according to researchers at Penn State. The research suggests that intestinal infections may contribute to metabolic diseases in humans as well. Ruud Schilder, assistant professor of entomology and biology, has received a three-year grant from the National Science Foundation to expand upon these findings.